MacMoray has found its footing. Early summer, Elgin, a crowd that’s mostly local but pulls from across the north, and a line-up that’s always mixed chart names with bands you saw in much smaller rooms not that long ago.
This year’s no different. UB40 and The Fratellis are doing the heavy lifting at the top of the bill, while underneath there’s a genuinely mixed spread of acts at very different points in their careers. Some well-established, some mid-transition, some just solid live bands that keep getting asked back because they’re worth asking back.
Anyway. Here are five from each day that feel worth stopping for.
Saturday
Punk Rock Factory
Punk Rock Factory have built a real following off pop culture covers, Disney, film soundtracks, big singalong stuff, all pushed through a tight pop-punk setup, and it works better live than it probably sounds on paper.
They come into this fresh off selling out Barrowland Ballroom on Valentine’s Night, which is not a small thing. That’s been a long time coming, they’ve been building through venues steadily, bringing the crowd with them each step up. Barrowland is a proper marker and they filled it.
If you caught them at Belladrum in 2024, you’ll know how a festival crowd takes to them. They dropped 500 Miles and the place just went. No convincing required. Expect something similar here.
Alice Deejay
Look, you already know what’s coming, and that’s kind of the whole point. “Better Off Alone” still turns a crowd nearly 30 years on, which says everything.
Alice Deejay came out of the late 90s Dutch dance scene, built around producers rather than a traditional band setup. The track started as an instrumental and then became something much bigger than anyone probably planned for. It stuck, and it’s still sticking.
The set moves fast, high tempo, familiar hooks, not much room to second-guess whether you’re enjoying yourself. You drift past, hear it, and you’ve lost ten minutes.
John B’s Daughter
John B’s Daughter have been in a bit of a transition, shifting away from covers and leaning properly into their own material now, and it’s starting to sound like them rather than a version of someone else, which is when things get interesting.
The last year’s taken them further afield, Monaco, songwriting camps, new releases. Tracks like One Chance at Life come from somewhere more personal and that comes through in how they play them. They still hold a crowd even with the newer stuff, which is the hard bit sorted.
Faeda
Formerly Forgetting The Future, now going as Faeda and pushing into something heavier and more defined. They’ve been picking up support slots across Scotland and the newer material has more weight to it. All Thorns No Roses is darker, tighter, less polished in a way that suits them.
They describe themselves as “a captivating indie-rock band to sweat out to” which, honestly, holds up. Keep an eye on where they go after their Glasgow Garage show at the end of May.
Bad Actress
Bad Actress are on festival bills for a reason, they’ve put the work in and the crowd already knows them, which takes a lot of the pressure off.
They brought in a new lead singer in 2024 and it clicked pretty quickly, you could hear it in how crowds responded. Their debut album Live and Alive was recorded in front of a packed Bandstand in Nairn, no studio tidying, just what they actually sound like on stage. Loud, direct, no gaps to hide in. Catch them at the right moment and it really lands.
Sunday
UB40
The songs do most of the work at this point, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
They last played Inverness back in 2017 at Northern Meeting Park, early summer, trees full, crowd building through the evening, and when they came on it just settled into a proper communal singalong. Arms up, steady rhythm, people staying longer than they’d planned. That’s still essentially the set. Familiar, unhurried, and it holds a crowd without breaking a sweat.
(Full review from that night here: https://igi.gs/2017/05/ub40-inverness-review/)
Cammy Barnes
Cammy Barnes has built this gradually, local support first, then wider attention creeping in, and now sitting somewhere interestingly in between.
The voice is what carries it. Acoustic-led but with enough strength to hold space on a bigger stage without needing to dress it up. Highland Runaway got a run on Sunday Brunch recently and there’s a new single, Let Me Down, due in May. Things are shifting outward for him and it’s good timing.
East 17
East 17 always sat a bit outside the standard boyband lane, more R&B, a bit more edge in places, even if the bigger hits smoothed that out somewhat. Tracks like Stay Another Day, House of Love and It’s Alright still carry weight and tend to pull people in without much effort.
The current line-up has Terry Coldwell still in it alongside newer members, which shapes how it all sits. The familiar songs are still there but it doesn’t feel frozen in time, which matters.
People know the tracks. That carries a long way.
Tweed
Tweed are basically part of the furniture up here, you’ll have seen them even if you don’t immediately clock it.
Graeme Mackay leads the band and also runs Stage 2 at MacMoray, which tells you a lot about how embedded they are in all of this. Years of playing across Scotland and beyond feeding into how they run a set. It leans ceilidh but stretches well past it into funk, ska, whatever fits the room. Current line-up keeps it tight, Graeme on accordion, his son Craig on drums, small setup but the sound’s bigger than that suggests.
Riff Bank South
Riff Bank South are newer, but the groundwork goes back further than the name does. Early sessions between George Owen and Dave Forsyth were happening a couple of years before things properly locked in.
Once the full line-up settled, the sound sharpened up quickly and that comes through on their debut EP Filthy Lucre. Rock, blues, a bit heavier in places, built around riffs that have apparently been sitting around for years waiting to be pushed into shape. They started at Upstairs and have been stepping out from there, this feels like the right next jump for them.
(Read more: https://igi.gs/2026/02/riff-bank-south-bring-filthy-lucre-to-upstairs-this-february/)
Final word
You can plan it all out and it won’t go to plan, so don’t bother too hard. Pick a handful of names, drift between stages, stop when something catches you. That’s usually where the best bits happen anyway.
Let us know what you end up seeing, and what we’ve missed.
